


Camera Obscura

by Andraste



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-16
Updated: 2004-04-16
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:46:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andraste/pseuds/Andraste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Londo pays a visit to G'Kar's cell. Early Season Four.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Camera Obscura

One of the more disturbing aspects of G'Kar's prison cell was the odour. The place was kept clean enough for a dungeon, but Londo could still smell fresh Narn blood, which was quite unlike that of a Centauri in that, if identical in appearance. Cartagia had drained so much from G'Kar's veins already that it seemed he must be a dry husk with nothing inside left to bleed out, yet still it came.

"G'Kar?" he said. There was barely any light in the cell now, but he could just see that the Narn was slumped over on his side, at an awkward angle that prevented his back from touching either the wall or floor. Any pressure against it would be agony, tonight. A closer inspection told him that the guards had left his hands chained awkwardly behind his back, which must make the pain worse still.

"I did as you asked, Mollari," he said softly, in a voice that sounded raw. "Will you not leave me in peace?"

After the whipping was over, Londo had taken his leave of the Emperor as quickly as protocol allowed and managed to steer poor Vir into the garden before he could disgrace himself before the monarch. He had stood there and patted his aide's back gingerly while the boy was violently ill in one of the flower beds, and then returned him to his quarters. And then he had come here.

Vir had asked him how he could watch G'Kar being tormented and feel nothing, but the trouble was that he felt too _many_ things. It was growing difficult to believe that he had ever felt hatred, pure and righteous, against the Narn who had lorded it over him as ambassador. Whatever he felt now, looking at the battered body and the two red eyes staring up at him, hatred it was not. He wished to be anywhere else, and yet he could not keep away.

"I brought you something to ..." he was going to say 'ease your pain', but nothing he could do would accomplish that. Instead he simply reached into his pocket. The flask fitted easily beneath his coat, and had most often been used to transport brivari or some other alcoholic delight to places where such necessities were frowned upon, but now it held nothing more than simple water. "You must be thirsty."

He had already brought G'Kar water once. Narns could fast for many days with few ill-effects, but there was a risk that he would dehydrate severely between now and when Cartagia decided it was time to finish him off. Although the pain technicians would be sure to give him just enough to keep him alive, it could not be comfortable. Londo told himself that it was important to ensure that his ally well enough to stand. G'Kar had accepted the offer without comment.

Now, however, he made no move to sit up, and said nothing. Londo wanted to say 'one little scream, that wasn't so bad, was it?' but the look in the Narn's eyes stopped the words before they could make it past his lips. His capacity to withstand physical torture frankly astounded Londo - he had no doubt that G'Kar would have taken the last stroke of the whip and died without a sound, had he not been given incentive to do otherwise. It was his precious pride that had been more sorely damaged.

Crouching down beside the Narn, he uncapped the flask and wordlessly poured a few drops into G'Kar's mouth and waited while the Narn swallowed.

"What you did was necessary," he said. "Had you not given the Emperor what he wanted -"

"I did not scream for Cartagia, Londo. And you still cannot understand what I have given up."

Another mouthful of water. It was best to make sure he drank slowly.

"It is a little hard to tell in this light, G'Kar, but you still appear to be orange and covered in spots."

G'Kar tried to shake his head and winced. "Is what makes a true Centauri the crest upon your head, or the two hearts within your ribs? No. I am no Narn. I am a thing newly born, that does not yet know what it is."

Londo resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. "This is hardly the time or place for philosophy."

"On the contrary, I can think of no more auspicious location. The last time I was in a prison cell, it gave me a wonderful opportunity to reflect, and to write. Who knows what masterpiece I could compose in here, if I had the materials? If my hands weren't tied behind my back, perhaps I could scribble on the walls in my own blood ..."

Frowning, Londo gave him another drink. He had thought that G'Kar's stubborn desire for matyrdom had finally lost out to his pragmatism, but he did not like this line of conversation.

"Cartagia gave you a choice," he said, "between death and the sacrifice of your pride. I, too, have given you a choice, between death and destroying him, and saving your world by so doing. Not a few of your people have died under that lash, at the fortieth stroke, and all that they are is dead Narns. You took another path. Would you truly rather be among them?"

G'Kar smiled. "Not so long ago, I would have gladly died, if it meant that Centauri would suffer as a result. Have you forgotten that I would have traded my life for your death, and considered it a bargain?"

Londo had not forgotten that day in the transport tube, and he doubted that he ever would. It was only that he still had trouble believing that the Narn had truly meant what he had said then. "Do you still wish to see Centauri Prime destroyed, G'Kar? To take your revenge against me by refusing to help me remove Cartagia?"

"I am not like you, Mollari. Once I wished all that your emperor has inflicted on me, and worse, upon you. Yet ... Narns do not give up their Shon'Kar. They prefer death to dishonour. Therefore I am a Narn no longer."

Londo ceased fighting temptation, and rolled his eyes emphatically. "You are a stubborn fool - _that_, at least, has not changed at all in the time I have known you. If you are determined to expire of existential despair," he said, putting the cap back on the bottle, "I will not waste water on you."

It was gratifying to watch his eyes widen, to see the Narn force himself into a sitting position. "Give it here, Mollari," he snarled. "You need me alive."

"Yes, G'Kar, I do," he said, calmly pouring the last of the water into his mouth, "and so do your people. You have chosen to live for them."

He should have been beyond surprise at the Narn's behaviour by now, but the short bark of laughter that almost made G'Kar choke on the liquid still caught him out. "Sheridan said that I must choose that, just before your last Emperor died. If he had told me that you would one day say the same thing ..."

Londo had not forgotten _that_ day, either. Sitting in his quarters, untouched glass of brivari in one tightly clenched hand, listening as G'Kar shouted loud enough in the corridor outside to be heard through the thick station walls.

"I may not understand Narn honour," Londo said, "but I do know that a coward would have given in to Cartagia long ago. Another kind of coward would sooner have died than sacrifice a principle to his cause."

For once, it was G'Kar that looked away from him, frowning. "You should go. If you are found here, you will have to torture me for show, and I would not enjoy that."

"Remember what you have accomplished tonight, G'Kar," he said, standing up and going to the door. The Narn had retreated into his silence once more. Londo could see why Cartagia found it frustrating.

Once the guard had let him out, he stood for a moment in the darkened corridor, belatedly remembering to put the empty bottle away in his coat. If the guard noticed, he said nothing. G'Kar was not wrong when he said that he had become a new thing, although Londo did not think that the miraculous transformation had occurred this evening. He only wished that he possessed the courage to tell the Narn the change had been for the better.


End file.
